March 2014 MUET Report Writing Question

Hi people. Here are my thoughts on the report writing question.

Firstly, it was relatively easy and clear cut. I think that with a bit of critical thinking most students would have found it easy to score in this section. Below is a breakdown of how to answer the question.

Follow the format given by MPM.

A) Title
B) Introduction sentence.
(What are the stimuli?)
C) Overview/Trend 
(What is the most outstanding idea that LINKS all stimuli?)
D) Key Features 
(Most outstanding features as opposed to listing down the obvious features)
E) Conclusion sentence.
(Similar to Overview but just written from a different angle.)

Based on the format given, you could easily write 150 - 200 words.




A) Title: 
Visitation of Youths to the Dentist  from 1971-2010

B) Introduction:
The stimuli present a bar graph on the Number of Youths visiting the the dentist over four decades (1971-2010) and a table listing medical and cosmetic reasons for two periods (1971-1980 and 2001-2010).

C) Overview/Trend:
In general, visits to the dentist has risen steadily for both genders and girls recorded the highest visitations mainly for cosmetic reasons.

D) Key features:
ANALYSIS (within each stimulus)

* According the the bar graph, visitations to the dentist by both genders increased steadily.
* The lowest recorded visitations was by the girls in 1971-1980 with only 26,000 visits. This total almost tripled to 75,000 in 2001-2010 which is also the highest recorded for both genders.
* The lowest recorded visitations by boys was also recorded in 1971-1980 with 30,000 visits which doubled to 60,000 in 2001-2010.
* 1971-1980 was the only period where the number of boys visiting the dentist was more than girls.

* According to the table, the main reason for visiting the dentist for both genders is for filling cavities.
* Girls showed a drastic increase of reasons for visiting the dentist where they only went for medical reasons in 1971-1980 to going for both medical and cosmetic reasons in 2001-2010.
* In 1971-1980, boys visited the dentist for more medical reasons than the girls and later in 2001-2010 they clearly visited the dentist only when they had medical reasons rather than cosmetic ones.
* By 2001-2010, girls showed very high concern for cosmetic reasons compared to boys as records showed that they visited the dentist to fit braces and to whiten or clean their teeth whereas boys only had braces fitted.

SYNTHESIS (Linking between stimuli)
* The number of visitations for both genders showed a steady increase which is parallel with the increase of  reasons for going to the dentist over the years.
* Girls recorded the lowest visitations to the dentist with only 26,000 in 1971-1980 because they only went for one medical reason which was to fill cavities.
* In 1971-1980 as well, boys recorded a slightly higher rate of visitations than girls (30,000) because they went for more medical reasons which was to get their teeth extracted as well as cavities filled.
* The data shows girls recorded the highest visitations (75,000) to the dentist in 2001-2010 when cosmetic treatments like fitting braces and the whitening and cleaning of teeth were available.
* Boys also recorded the highest visitations to the dentist in 2001-2010 (60,000) which is double the number in 1971-1980(30,000) but they mainly went for medical reasons rather than cosmetic ones.

E) Conclusion:
In conclusion, visits to the dentist steadily increased for both genders by 2001-2010 whereby boys showed more concern for medical reasons while girls focused more on cosmetic reasons.

Basically, a high band answer will have more synthesis than analysis because it is stated very clearly in the instructions/rubrics that you should ANALYSE the results of the survey and LINK the information presented in the two visuals. You will still get marks if you analysed the visuals correctly, but if you were to relate the data using a year to year explanation this would not award you many marks as you are merely stating the features. Therefore, a good MUET student would be able to identify which points ARE THE MOST OUTSTANDING ideas you can get from LINKING the visuals rather than merely retelling the data which everyone can see for themselves. Am I making sense? I hope so. 

Therefore, teachers, the challenge is for you to make students realise the difference between Key Features vs Features and Analysis vs Synthesis. Easier said than done,right?! Hence the need for higher critical thinking skills. 

Stay tuned... next blog post is about the essay question and why most people cannot get higher than a band 3-4... (in my humble opinion only, take it with a pinch of salt!)